TECHNOLOGY: A Colorado company that uses excess natural gas to power cryptocurrency servers hopes to have 35 operations deployed throughout the Rocky Mountain region as soon as June. (Casper Star-Tribune)
TRANSPORTATION: A California legal expert says today’s expected final rule to roll back Obama-era automobile fuel efficiency standards is the Trump administration’s biggest step yet to block climate action. (New York Times)
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WIND: Experts say equipping California’s wind farms to provide grid services and paying operators for doing so could help resurrect the state’s dormant wind market. (Greentech Media)
CALIFORNIA:
• PG&E says its $4 million in fines and penalties will not be paid out of the $13.5 billion trust set up for fire victims during its bankruptcy. (Chico Enterprise-Record)
• A federal judge rules PG&E can’t be sued for power lost as a result of the utility executing public safety power shutoffs through a process approved by state regulators. (Courthouse News Service)
FOSSIL FUELS: Wyoming leaders say the state’s Integrated Test Center could be a potential world leader in clean coal and carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technologies. (Wyoming Business Report)
COAL: A University of Wyoming economist says Powder River Basin coal producers will struggle to make it through the rest of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Gillette News Record)
OIL & GAS:
• Leaders of New Mexico’s oil and gas industry are hoping for federal support amid reduced operations due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
• Colorado’s oil industry set new production records last year with 192.2 million barrels of crude despite battles over state regulations and slower well permitting. (Denver Business Journal, subscription)
• Chevron is donating $230,000 to nonprofits in the Permian Basin responding to the coronavirus crisis. (Hobbs News-Sun)
HYDROPOWER: Ice jams from the Colorado River have shut down the Shoshone Hydropower Plant in Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon. (Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)
UTILITIES: Hawaiian Electric wants to build a 40 megawatt/160 megawatt hour battery storage system that will lead to the closure of the oil-fired Kahului Power Plant. (Maui News)
SOLAR:
• A proposed project to install solar arrays at school sites could save a California school district an estimated $4.6 million in utility costs over 30 years. (Antelope Valley Press)
• A California startup has developed transparent solar cells to create a “solar glass” that can turn sunlight into energy. (CNN)
COMMENTARY:
• A renewable energy advocate says Longmont, Colorado must continue to be committed to 100% renewable energy to fight climate change. (Longmont Times Call)
• A University of California professor says Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers must include hydrogen power as part of California’s clean transportation future. (CalMatters)
• A California journalist says questions must be answered about PG&E’s spending on transmission line maintenance and state regulatory oversight of the utility. (CalMatters)